50 ESL Discussion Questions About Food, Cooking, and Eating Habits

Food is the perfect ESL discussion topic. Every student eats. Every student has preferences. And food connects to culture, health, memory, travel, and ethics - which means a conversation that starts with "What did you have for breakfast?" can end up somewhere genuinely interesting.

Teachers know the problem with discussion questions: half the class drifts off whenever only one student is speaking. YapYapGo is a classroom speaking practice tool for ESL teachers that runs every pair on the same question simultaneously, so the whole room is engaged at once.

Here are 50 food and cooking discussion questions organised by CEFR level, designed for pair work.

YapYapGo includes food and lifestyle as discussion topics across its speaking modes, with questions matched to age group and CEFR level. But these work just as well read aloud.

A2 Elementary (questions 1–10)

1. What is your favourite food? Why do you like it?
2. Can you cook? What can you make?
3. Do you prefer eating at home or in a restaurant?
4. What did you eat for breakfast today?
5. Is there a food you really don't like?
6. What food is popular in your country?
7. Do you like spicy food?
8. How often do you eat fast food?
9. Do you like trying food from other countries?
10. What is the best meal someone has made for you?

B1 Intermediate (questions 11–25)

1. How has your diet changed since you were a child?
2. Do you think people in your country eat healthily?
3. Would you ever try eating insects? Why or why not?
4. Is cooking a skill everyone should learn?
5. How has food delivery changed the way people eat?
6. Do you think expensive restaurants are worth the money?
7. What's the strangest food you've ever tried?
8. Should schools teach children how to cook?
9. Do you think vegetarianism will become more common in the future?
10. How important is food when you're travelling?
11. What food reminds you of your childhood?
12. Do you follow any food accounts on social media?
13. Is street food better than restaurant food?
14. How do you decide what to cook each day?
15. What would your last meal be if you could choose anything?

Tool tip: YapYapGo's Topic Discussion mode serves food-related questions matched to your students' level, with automatic pair shuffling between rounds. The question bank tracks what each class has discussed, so conversations stay fresh week after week.

B2 Upper-Intermediate (questions 26–40)

1. How has globalisation changed the way your country eats?
2. Should junk food be taxed the same way as cigarettes and alcohol?
3. Is the "clean eating" movement helpful or harmful?
4. How much responsibility should food companies have for public health?
5. Is food waste a moral issue or just an economic one?
6. How has social media changed our relationship with food?
7. Should food labelling be more honest about what's actually in products?
8. Do you think lab-grown meat will replace traditional farming?
9. How does food connect to cultural identity?
10. Is organic food genuinely better, or is it mostly marketing?
11. How should restaurants balance profit with fair pay for workers?
12. What role does food play in your social life?
13. Is it possible to eat ethically in a modern economy?
14. How has your culture's food changed in the last generation?
15. Do cooking shows and food media set unrealistic expectations?

C1 Advanced (questions 41–50)

1. To what extent is access to healthy food a class issue rather than a personal choice issue?
2. How does the industrialisation of food production create a disconnect between people and what they eat?
3. "Food is political." In what ways do our eating choices reflect and reinforce broader social structures?
4. Should governments subsidise healthy food rather than taxing unhealthy food?
5. How does colonialism continue to shape global food systems and food culture?
6. Is the concept of "national cuisine" meaningful in an age of fusion cooking and global supply chains?
7. How should we weigh animal welfare against cultural food traditions?
8. What would a truly sustainable global food system look like?
9. Is the rise of food delivery apps creating a more isolated society?
10. How does food insecurity in wealthy nations challenge the narrative that hunger is a developing-world problem?

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Sources:

• Long, M. (1996). The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition. Handbook of Second Language Acquisition.
• Storch, N. & Aldosari, A. (2013). Pairing Learners in Pair Work Activity. Language Teaching Research.